In this short essay the parable “An imperial message” will be examined. The parable “An Imperial Message” The emperor sends a person (explained as you) a message by using a Messenger. And the journey of the Messenger towards the person (you) is explained in detail. In this story the emotions of futility, resistance and effort is seen significantly. The sense of destiny and helplessness can be interpreted as well as the idea of someone being the chosen one and daydreaming is explored as well. Since it is a parable from Kafka it can also signify nothing too. However this parable even if it signifies nothing has a ton of different interpretations and interpretations that are made from these interpretations. This short essay will try to explain some of these interpretations that I came up with while analytically reading this work.
The first interpretation can be that the person is dreaming about the emperor that has summoned him while he was dying. This might mean that you are the heir to the throne as an out of the wedlock child since as the person who is talking to him says that you are a humble servant and an insignificant shadow and since he knows that he is a child out of wedlock he might think that the emperor will summon him when the time comes and when he is summoned the Messenger has to travel far and wide and it might be too late for the out of the wedlock child to claim the throne as his own. The entire part of the seemingly futile effort of the Messenger suggests this interpretation. The person who is talking to the person (“you”) can be someone hostile to the person and does not want him to become the new emperor. He might be the relative of the emperor so that he will have the throne if the message is not delivered or simply a person from another kingdom who will want to have the empire to be weak. So he captured the person and hid him in a place so that no one can find him. This type of interpretation can also lead to another interpretation which is similar but distinct. This interpretation might be that the person being an imaginative being and dreaming that the king will summon him and he will go on adventures too even though he is a nobody he might also be delusional and that’s why he thinks that the messenger is not arriving to him. So this entire parable can be interpreted as a dream of a peasant who wants to have an important life with significant achievements but just couldn’t do it because the Messenger is not reaching to him. If that is the case the person who is speaking to him might be an authority figure in his life who tries to show how futile the person’s dream actually is and is trying to help the person realize the reality of the things.
Another interpretation of this parable is that the person this is a way of interpreting the day and night cycle and dreaming. The emperor can be considered as god who orders sun to come up. The sun is the Messenger who has to go through everywhere of the empire to reach the person. This can be seen with the mention of the symbol of sun on the Messenger. Furthermore the act of Messenger moving by using their hands might be related to climbing and the sun going up as well. If this interpretation is correct then the person is in the middle of the dark night sleeping (because of the mention of the dreams) and the day is too far away still. The movement of the Messenger can also be interpreted as the movement of the sun from dawn till dusk as well (since he encounters no resistance just like the sun). The messenger’s movement in the city and the apparent trouble he has with it (“if he could just reach the open fields he would fly”) also symbolizes the suns movement in cities (in many big cities there are places that are darker than it should be because the sun rays are blocked by buildings.
Another interpretation of this parable might be how people need to work tirelessly on their ambitions and how it is very hard to achieve one’s dreams. The person that is talked toward in this parable is the person who has the dreams. Act of carrying the message to the person can be the effort that is spent on doing the job. In the parable messenger has a very hard time carrying the message and cannot find open fields. This can mean that the road of achieving the goals of the person has many obstacles and it is really hard to achieve ones goals because the messenger reaching the person is said to be almost impossible according to the person who is talking to the dreamer. In this interpretation the emperor might be the concept of destiny. (Since he is powerful and is the starting point of the journey for the messenger. A similar interpretation to this one is that it is not hard to achieve the dreams but we get bored of chasing it and we procrastinate. This concept can be seen in the phrase if he succeeded that nothing would be gained… and once more stairs and courts”. This phrase makes it sound like the messenger is not going anywhere (therefore procrastinating). Both of this interpretations tries to explain that achieving the goals that the person dreams about or fulfilling the person’s destiny is pretty hard and it is almost impossible (as it can be seen from the fact that the person says that it is impossible for the messenger to reach “you”.
Final interpretation of this parable can be about depression and a person finding the power to get out of it. The emperor in the parable is dying. This might be related to the hope and power inside the person dying in the event of a depression. The messenger can be considered the last bit of hope that is left of the power dying in a person since only he has the word of the emperor. The sun in the messenger’s chest symbolizes the concept of the messenger being hope as well. The messenger is trying to get the depressed individual who is “you” out of depression but in order to do so he has to deliver the message. But the messenger tries so hard but the hardships caused by depression and life make this journey almost impossible. In the parable the messenger is scratching and clawing his way and he just cannot get out of the city to reach the person. (“you”) The empire and its buildings can be considered as the mental state of the depressed individual. Furthermore the person who waits for the messenger and dreams is in a dark and secluded place. This place can be considered as his state of mind and the person who is talking to him, saying that he is dreaming and he is an insignificant shadow may be the manifestation of his crippling self-doubt that is keeping him in a depressed state. The person dreaming, as the evening falls and the messenger not arriving also shows that it is hopeless to get out of depression.
As it can be seen there are a significant amount of interpretations that can be drawn from a one page short story since the reader has limited information. Every interpretation that I have made in this essay can be right or wrong. However one thing is for certain Kafka’s “An Imperial Message” parable is open to any kind of interpretation and we will never understand what Kafka’s true message behind this parable was.
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